Dude, if you had told me that one of your best stories would be told via the guise of a lady who only wanted babies, I’d have laughed. I love this one. Very humane, with a sensitive sense of character.
🤣 Thanks, Tom! I was a little scared at first to write this, but I had enough context from personal experiences to feel like I might get it right. After reading Sherman Alexie's excellent novel excerpt, The Book of MartyJo, it influenced me to give it a go.
Thanks, Scott! Both of our children are adopted as well, and we have several friends who adopted, so I pulled a lot from experience and understand your pains and hopefully joys as well. I'm happy it resonated.
I love this story! I'd love to just open an egg and find a baby in it, instead of getting one the normal way. It does leave some unanswered questions though. Why did the spaceship people scatter those eggs around? Is it a sneaky plot to take over the world? The places you could go with this!
How wonderful, Reena! Since both my children are adopted, it hit closer to home and was more relatable and easier to write. Those things that are closest to our hearts make great stories. Thanks for sharing!
Brian -- I am not a subscriber but I steadily return to read your writing. I am getting ready to take a break from Substack and try to understand the new social media component Notes. I am very new to writing. What I don't wish to change in the Substack experience is the Reader-Writer discovery and delightful, amazing and creative stories like this. The "man upstairs" was a habit forming expression my Dad favored. You managed to bring it to life. Thanks for creating and sharing such a great story. FWIW I do not plan to share this comment on Notes. This was a GREAT STORY and it provided the transcendence of love. Bravo.
Thanks so much for reading and stopping by to comment, Mark. It always means so much more to me than subscriber numbers that people really enjoy reading my stories. Especially if something I've written resonates with a real-life experience. Knowing that you're lurking here is a great feeling. 😁 I totally understand what you mean about the Reader-Writer discovery, and my hope is that Substack does not begin to lean too far in the direction of social media. I've used Notes quite a bit, and have enjoyed it, but ultimately if it distracts subscribers from reading long-form (although mine aren't too long) fiction, it ends up being a detriment. When you do take a break, I hope you continue to write, even if no one is reading it... just yet.
Your comment is so timely Brian -- thank you. I am planning to take a break from Substack next week and try to understand how the Subscriptions versus the Notes works. I am retired but spent some time in the past working with technologies for monitoring and ad-hoc networks. We all can become prisoners of our thought and experience. The work has made me very unlikely to use Social Media as it doesn't work for me and I do not care for some of the effects it can have. I think I mostly want to see if the algorithm for Notes behaves as described. So I gotta figure out if there is a happy medium for me as an algorithm is designed to converge based upon its initial conditions. I hope I can find a happy medium.
I'm an order guy. I will likely end up with a host of completed drafts. My goal has been to write a book in retirement and the last 18 months have been about getting repetitions. My topics jumped around wildly and that was always okay with me as I just wanted to write stories based upon research or write personally about my opinions.
I just wanted you to know that your writing is quite good and often seems to deliver an overarching message. That is amazing and says lots about your talent.
well-done. do you know about the service that lists. paying no fee magazines by each day of the moonth- Publishing and Other Insanities. Type it into google and then having finding places to send your story.
Dude, if you had told me that one of your best stories would be told via the guise of a lady who only wanted babies, I’d have laughed. I love this one. Very humane, with a sensitive sense of character.
🤣 Thanks, Tom! I was a little scared at first to write this, but I had enough context from personal experiences to feel like I might get it right. After reading Sherman Alexie's excellent novel excerpt, The Book of MartyJo, it influenced me to give it a go.
https://shermanalexie.substack.com/p/the-book-of-martyjo
Cool, I’ll check it out.
What a great story. My wife and I had a hard time adopting our daughter so this really related to me.
Thanks, Scott! Both of our children are adopted as well, and we have several friends who adopted, so I pulled a lot from experience and understand your pains and hopefully joys as well. I'm happy it resonated.
This is a beautiful story. So human, it's hardly fantasy.
Thank you, Miriam, I'm glad you enjoyed it! The fantasy and science fiction with a human element are my favorite to read and write.
I love this story! I'd love to just open an egg and find a baby in it, instead of getting one the normal way. It does leave some unanswered questions though. Why did the spaceship people scatter those eggs around? Is it a sneaky plot to take over the world? The places you could go with this!
Thank you for reading and commenting, Virginia! So many questions, and so few answers. 😉
Loved it Brian ! And what a small beautiful world. My daughter is adopted too so when they tried to take Sky away, I held my breath! ❤️
How wonderful, Reena! Since both my children are adopted, it hit closer to home and was more relatable and easier to write. Those things that are closest to our hearts make great stories. Thanks for sharing!
❤️
Great story! I like how you make sci-fi so relateable.
Thank you! I'm not a big space opera fan, so my work tends to lean toward character driven science fiction.
We can all live together in one big happy universe ✨️
Very Emotional, David. I cried and laughed and cried again. Excellent read.
Brian -- I am not a subscriber but I steadily return to read your writing. I am getting ready to take a break from Substack and try to understand the new social media component Notes. I am very new to writing. What I don't wish to change in the Substack experience is the Reader-Writer discovery and delightful, amazing and creative stories like this. The "man upstairs" was a habit forming expression my Dad favored. You managed to bring it to life. Thanks for creating and sharing such a great story. FWIW I do not plan to share this comment on Notes. This was a GREAT STORY and it provided the transcendence of love. Bravo.
Thanks so much for reading and stopping by to comment, Mark. It always means so much more to me than subscriber numbers that people really enjoy reading my stories. Especially if something I've written resonates with a real-life experience. Knowing that you're lurking here is a great feeling. 😁 I totally understand what you mean about the Reader-Writer discovery, and my hope is that Substack does not begin to lean too far in the direction of social media. I've used Notes quite a bit, and have enjoyed it, but ultimately if it distracts subscribers from reading long-form (although mine aren't too long) fiction, it ends up being a detriment. When you do take a break, I hope you continue to write, even if no one is reading it... just yet.
Your comment is so timely Brian -- thank you. I am planning to take a break from Substack next week and try to understand how the Subscriptions versus the Notes works. I am retired but spent some time in the past working with technologies for monitoring and ad-hoc networks. We all can become prisoners of our thought and experience. The work has made me very unlikely to use Social Media as it doesn't work for me and I do not care for some of the effects it can have. I think I mostly want to see if the algorithm for Notes behaves as described. So I gotta figure out if there is a happy medium for me as an algorithm is designed to converge based upon its initial conditions. I hope I can find a happy medium.
I'm an order guy. I will likely end up with a host of completed drafts. My goal has been to write a book in retirement and the last 18 months have been about getting repetitions. My topics jumped around wildly and that was always okay with me as I just wanted to write stories based upon research or write personally about my opinions.
I just wanted you to know that your writing is quite good and often seems to deliver an overarching message. That is amazing and says lots about your talent.
What a quirky story. I don't know what but I loved this simple reveal - "the only difference between us being her light powder-blue skin"
Thanks Dan! I love the description of quirky. That sums up my voice pretty well 😁
I enjoyed this story. Compelling and emotional.
Thanks for reading and commenting, John!
What a beautiful and touching story, Brian. Loved it from start to finish!
Thanks, Justin!
well-done. do you know about the service that lists. paying no fee magazines by each day of the moonth- Publishing and Other Insanities. Type it into google and then having finding places to send your story.